A Palestinian State Won’t Bring Peace

JNS.org – We all want the Arab war against Israel to be finally resolved. But is establishing a Palestinian state the answer? Not when the Palestinians’ goal is Israel’s destruction, as opposed to a Palestinian state living in peace with Israel.

Every opportunity the Palestinians had to establish a state was rejected because it meant accepting Israel. The offers they rejected included: a 1937 Peel Commission proposal of a state on 95 percent of territory what is today all of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza; in 1947 a division of the land into Jewish and Arab states (U.N. Resolution 181); in 2000 the offer of 97 percent of the West Bank, all of Gaza, and eastern Jerusalem made by U.S. President Bill Clinton and endorsed by Prime Minister Ehud Barak; and in 2008 an offer of 98 percent of the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, and billions in aid from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

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These rejections clearly and painfully show that statehood is not the Palestinians’ goal. American Jews understand this. A recent American Jewish Committee poll shows that 76 percent of U.S. Jews believe the Palestinians’ goal is Israel’s destruction, and only 38 percent support a state.

The president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas, makes his hatred toward Jews and the Jewish state clear. He and other PA officials proclaim the racist, anti-Semitic statement that no Jews will be permitted to live in a Palestinian state, and that he “do(es) not accept a Jewish state; call it what you will.” In a U.N. speech he condemned Israel for “63 years of occupation,” meaning all of Israel is illegal, and called Israel the “land of Mohammed and Jesus,” denying its Jewish connection. His official emblem shows all of Israel with an Arab headdress over it next to a Kalyshnakov rifle.

In the New York Times, Abbas openly wrote that a Palestinian state will not lead to peace, but will “internationalize the conflict as a legal matter… paving the way for us to pursue claims against Israel at the U.N. Human Rights Treaty bodies and the International Court of Justice.” Only this week, Abbas said he has made “no concessions” and still demands that the 1967 “Auschwitz” lines—as they have been called by Israeli Minister of Tourism Uzi Landau—be accepted (with minor changes) and that millions of so-called “refugees” be allowed to move into Israel, which would end Israel as a Jewish state.

Are Abbas and the PA presently acting as a democracy creating a civilized, peace-loving society? No. Abbas is a dictator who has not allowed elections for almost nine years. He promotes hate education against Jews and Israel in their media, schools and speeches—such as PA TVrecently showing Arab children calling Jews “most evil among creations, barbaric monkeys, wretched pigs”; doesn’t arrest terrorists; doesn’t stop demanding that Israel release terrorists; doesn’t end relations with Hamas; glorifies terrorists and names schools, streets, and sports teams after Jew-killing terrorists; and continues his massive and relentless delegitimization and demonization of Israel.

We also need to understand that a sovereign state doesn’t necessarily create a civil and peace-loving society—it only strengthens the ability of the underlying culture to promote its agenda. Iran, Libya, North Korea, Egypt and Syria are sovereign states. Are they lovely and peaceful?

There is also no demographic issue for Israel if a Palestinian state is not created, since Israel has already given away 42 percent of the West Bank and all of Gaza, where 99 percent of all Palestinians live. Therefore, Palestinians are no longer under Israeli rule, except when it comes to some security issues, and Israel can maintain its Jewish character without the creation of a Palestinian state.

Additionally, if Abbas is acting this way now, when he still has concessions to demand, how will he act when he runs a Palestinian state with no more concessions to demand? No wonder Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview last week that Israel is worried “a Palestinian state will be another Iranian client state that is committed to our destruction,” a state that “arms itself with missiles and rockets.” Remember, Netanyahu said that after Israel left Gaza “and tore up the settlements,” the conflict continued. No wonder Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said, “There are those who are trying to market Abbas as relatively moderate, but his goals are the same as Hamas.”

Under prevailing conditions, not only would a Palestinian state not bring peace, but Israel would also be truly endangered. No remotely stable and peaceful Palestinian state is even possible when rivals Fatah and Hamas control the West Bank and Gaza, respectively. Hamas might one day topple the Fatah/PA in the West Bank, just as it did in Gaza in 2007. Jerusalem, Ben Gurion airport and 70 percent of Israel’s population would be placed in rocket, mortar and rifle range of Palestinian terrorists, as is the case for Israeli territory adjacent to Hamas-controlled Gaza today—something that has traumatized Israelis in towns like Sderot and which has led to repeated military clashes and bloodshed.

Advocates of Palestinian statehood claim such a state would be demilitarized. But there is no way to ensure that it would be. The Versailles agreement after World War I required Germany to be demilitarized—yet Germany built the most powerful army in Europe.

The last thing the world needs now is yet another anti-American, anti-Jewish, anti-Christian terrorist dictatorship. Yet that is exactly what a Palestinian state would be, judging by the behavior of the PA during the 20 years since its creation.

Peace doesn’t exist because the Palestinian culture of hatred and violence against Jews and the Jewish state continues unabated, and because, as Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “There is a fervent Palestinian opposition to a Jewish state within any border.” Palestinian statehood won’t resolve these issues. Until these things change, and the Palestinian Arabs accept the right of the Jewish people to have a state, peace will remain elusive.

Morton A. Klein is national president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).

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Israel nation and its people has been blessed by God thru Patriarch Abraham and his descendants. Patriarch Jacob who has become Israel , where the 10 tribes of Israel has been founded , where Joseph who has become a governor of Egypt, the great King David and King Solomon and Jesus Christ our Savior linage came.THESE PEOPLE were the fulfillment of Gods promise of God to Abraham , to become a great nation .Israel nation and people were God fearing, and peace loving people and a righteous people of God. Only then when Palestine will learn to love peace and respect the rights of Israelite s to co- exist without the end in mind of annihilating, killing the people of Israel by stone and bomb throwing and murdering them, and repent of their sins of senseless killing of Israel people , would God Blessed them also. and became

G Marcus

TWO-STATE PLAN IS BASED ON A PACK OF LIES AND DELUSIONS:

* That Israel’s conflict is only with the Arabs of West Bank/Gaza instead of Arab/Islamic Imperialism in general; * That the conflict is “territorial”, i.e., relates to only part of the lands under Israel, instead of being “existential”, i.e., relating to ALL lands that constitute Israel;
* That there existed a national group called “Palestinians” deserving a sovereign state, while in actual fact by self-admission there existed only Arabs of a “Greater South Syrian” ethnic identity, that already had a state in Jordan;
* In fact if these Arabs were ever to get a state, Fatah would aspire to join a pan-Arab empire, while Hamas would strive to become part of a pan-Islamic Caliphate;
* That the PLO gave up their Jihad for the “right of return” of 1948 Arab refugees, or that in Arab/Muslim eyes it even had the right or authority to do so;
* That the PLO would recognize Israel as the Jewish nation-state, while in reality it can only recognize Israel as a state that will transform itself into the 3rd Palestinian-Arab state (besides Jordan and “Palestine”) by way of a return of Arab refugees to Israel proper.

If Arabs had aimed at true peace with Israel, they would not have invented a non-existent “Palestinian” nation — or rather, anti-nation — that aspires either to replace the Jewish nation-state or render it indefensible for a future assault. They would have instead achieved a 3-State Solution long ago with Israel, Egypt and Jordan, the latter being the already-existing Palestinian-Arab state.

aall55

This is an excellent article that assesses the reality with such clarity . Anyone thinking otherwise is a fool.

Thank you for your analytical thoughts .

Mel

If Leftist ‘ASSociated Press’ and Islamist ‘Rioters’ news agencies ever married and took a honeymoon cruise, their announcement headline could read ‘Ship of Fools!’

Bear Klein

Morton is 100% correct! Annex area C of Judah and Samaria and put an end to this horrible idea about a new terror state in the heart of Israel. Gaza is the first!

Liz Wagner

Morton Klein is one of the very few advocates for Israel who has the brains and courage to speak the truth. The “two-state solution” roadmap was announced by Bush for the purpose of locking the Jewish state into a deadly framework that works for everyone else. Israel can free itself from this trap, but it requires setting off a diplomatic bomb: bold denouncement and rejection of the “peace process,” as it has been framed, including the explicit highlighting of the lies upon which it is built. Every act of participation and support by Israel lends credibility to the process and deepens Israel’s entanglement in it. This is the bomb Israel should focus on, today, before Iran is ready to launch its first weapon.

Sonia Willats

I so, so agree with every word of this article and the comments above. Prime Minister Netanyahu is under HUGE PRESSURE to show that he is willing to bend and be reasonable. But blind hatred, taught from childhood and backed up by idealogy/belief cannot be reasoned with. Does the American regime care about Israel, really, if it wants to FORCE this peace?

At the risk of sounding ‘geeky’ I do not see this “peace” negotiated by outsider nations predicted anywhere in the prophetic writings. I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu would do much better to look to the G-d of Israel, and not to America.